Bird Strike Committee Proceedings
Date of this Version
May 1999
Abstract
The number of bird strike cases received from U.S. Air Force bases for identification has increased from 640 in 1996 to more than 840 in 1998. The additional workload, together with staff shortages on the BASH team, created a need for a more efficient reporting system. Previously, all bird strike remains were funneled through the Safety Center at Kirtland Air Force Base where they were logged into a database, forwarded to the Smithsonian Institution for identification, and then sent back to Kirtland for data entry of results before being returned to field personnel. This system facilitated a bottleneck in the turnaround time for identification results. Bird strike remains are now sent directly to the Smithsonian, an electronic bird strike form is submitted from Safety Offices via email, and the identification results are forwarded directly to the base. This new system significantly decreases data-entry efforts, return time of results, and provides a more accurate and consistent database. The feather identification process is discussed in conjunction with instructions and tips for using the new electronic reporting system.